Recruiting Forum Off Topic Thread III

[WarMachine]

I had to pay for a product, my degree. I got some grants, etc but had to pay just the same. If you are really smart or can ball and get a scholarship, more power to you. Do I think the government should use tax dollars to pay off every other regular joe that is now in college loan debt? No, I do not. Unless they want to swing by and pay off my mortgage and my car loans. I mean, hey why not? Bail me out too, right?

 

[MoCo_Vol]

I've had a TN Star 401k since we had our son, it's not likely it'll pay off everything...I mean it might depending on how much things pick up interest wise over the next 12 years.

But it'll help a lot.

 

[2xVol]

That's BS though, you can't just cancel a trillion dollars in debt just to buy votes and trust me that money will eventually come out of taxpayers pockets one way or another, here's the thing: your kid chose to go into debt, he or she felt that an education was worth it and like it or not there is a risk at being wrong or not making the right choices and on top of all that, another reason there is a lot of student debt is because kids abuse the system and take way bigger loans than they need so that way they have some spending money and don't have to get a part-time job, I've seen tons of my idiot friends do it and they're suffering because of those choices

Sure but college costs multiple times more than it did a couple decades ago due to a constant reduction in state funding. As a result nearly every 20 something I know has over 20k in student debt, including people with full scholarships to in-state schools. And you think it's fair to saddle an entire generation with **** tons of debt because you are too cheap to give them the advantages that you had.

And no, its not too expensive. We funded it before and we can do it again. Most other developed countries fund it. And it is a drop in the bucket when compared to something that I never hear people complain about - the defense budget.

 

[butchna]

Why is everyone making a big deal about tuition and school costs? According to many it’s worthless monetarily.

 

[engineerVOL]

Why is everyone making a big deal about tuition and school costs? According to many it’s worthless monetarily.

 

[85SugarVol]

Why do you want other people to suffer through it?

No one forced anybody to go to college, or to seek out financing to fund it.

You take out a loan? You pay it back.

That’s what grownups do.

 

[utkevdawg1]

Oooooh the old who's going to pay for everyone else's education argument and whose fault is it again?

See you tomorrow...

 

[chargervol]

Yeah, I'm predictable. I believe you should have to pay your own debts. But I also believe the costs are getting completely out of hand (ridiculous) and y'all know that.
Not interested in who's to blame only the best solution.

Hopefully they find the middle ground of reigning in the out of control, without just absolving personal responsibility.

Oh, that's right. We don't do the cooperation problem solving thingy any more. Crazy kids and your extremist stalemate non- solutions.

 

[MarcoVol]

No one forced anybody to go to college, or to seek out financing to fund it.

You take out a loan? You pay it back.

That’s what grownups do.

Regardless of which side of the aisle you’re on for this argument, facts should not be ignored. This article is from Forbes. Full disclosure, no idea if the “fake news” crowd considers Forbes to be fake news.

From 1989 - 2016, the cost of university increased nearly eight times faster than wages did.

Price Of College Increasing Almost 8 Times Faster Than Wages

 

[Glitch]

I didnt go to UT because I'd be in massive debt for being out of state. i got the same degree and got paid to get it at UNF. It wasnt a tricky decision to make. I would have loved to attend UT and my acceptance letter is still in my filing cabinet but why shoot yourself in the foot for no reason?

Pay your own debt fellow millennials and stop being irresponsible. You're grown. act like it

I got a BS in Business Administration and a MBA in Personal Financial Planning. What little the Army didn't pay for, I paid cash. No student loan debt is possible, but some many people get hung up on attending a specific university because it is the best in XYZ field. Most companies couldn't care less where you got your degree from, just that you have it. Most of the time, they just want to know that you are capable and have a good working knowledge of your field of study. The rest is OJT and learning the specifics of how that company does business.

I have a cousin that had to go to Vanderbilt so badly, she would just die if she didn't get her degree from Vanderbilt. Nowadays she sits at home on government disability because she is lazy and does nothing with her English degree from frickin Vanderbilt.

 

[RikidyBones]

Why do you want other people to suffer through it?

Why do you want people who worked hard and planned appropriately to pay twice ?

 

[VolGee4]

Regardless of which side of the aisle you’re on for this argument, facts should not be ignored. This article is from Forbes. Full disclosure, no idea if the “fake news” crowd considers Forbes to be fake news.

From 1989 - 2016, the cost of university increased nearly eight times faster than wages did.

Price Of College Increasing Almost 8 Times Faster Than Wages

I am relatively conservative, at least fiscally. The increase is outrageous. We don't want big government, so why are we allowing big college spending?

 

[Aesius]

I got a BS in Business Administration and a MBA in Personal Financial Planning. What little the Army didn't pay for, I paid cash. No student loan debt is possible, but some many people get hung up on attending a specific university because it is the best in XYZ field. Most companies couldn't care less where you got your degree from, just that you have it. Most of the time, they just want to know that you are capable and have a good working knowledge of your field of study. The rest is OJT and learning the specifics of how that company does business.

I have a cousin that had to go to Vanderbilt so badly, she would just die if she didn't get her degree from Vanderbilt. Nowadays she sits at home on government disability because she is lazy and does nothing with her English degree from frickin Vanderbilt.

It's a balancing act. If you're in a competitive sector in a competitive city, the brand name degree will stand out. You also may get hired to a better position with a better starting salary. And while your debt may be greater initially, lifetime earnings may end up being significantly higher. But for stuff like English degrees? Yeah...just go to Northwest Eastern Valley Technical A&M.

 

[MarcoVol]

I got a BS in Business Administration and a MBA in Personal Financial Planning. What little the Army didn't pay for, I paid cash. No student loan debt is possible, but some many people get hung up on attending a specific university because it is the best in XYZ field. Most companies couldn't care less where you got your degree from, just that you have it. Most of the time, they just want to know that you are capable and have a good working knowledge of your field of study. The rest is OJT and learning the specifics of how that company does business.

I have a cousin that had to go to Vanderbilt so badly, she would just die if she didn't get her degree from Vanderbilt. Nowadays she sits at home on government disability because she is lazy and does nothing with her English degree from frickin Vanderbilt.

 

[BucVol98]

Sure but college costs multiple times more than it did a couple decades ago due to a constant reduction in state funding. As a result nearly every 20 something I know has over 20k in student debt, including people with full scholarships to in-state schools. And you think it's fair to saddle an entire generation with **** tons of debt because you are too cheap to give them the advantages that you had.

And no, its not too expensive. We funded it before and we can do it again. Most other developed countries fund it. And it is a drop in the bucket when compared to something that I never hear people complain about - the defense budget.

dude I'm 25 not 50, I got the TN Hope scholarship, went to ETSU, luckily my mom's a teacher so I got a little discount and I commuted. Cost me about $2,500 a semester, so quit making these excuses, they made the decisions that put them in this situation, college isn't as unaffordable as you would lead people to believe

 

[hotcypress]

My wife is still finishing up her doctorate degree in curriculum and instruction (English major). She only has to stay working in a public school system for 9 more years in the state of TN & they federal government will forgive 100% of her student loan debt. I think it’s pretty awesome if you ask me. I don’t agree with the fact that the country has to eat the cost, but they agreed to it.

i thought this was going to save me a lot of money as well. In reality, the department of education has fought this structure at every level. There was an article last year that said, of the thousands of people eligible for this forgiveness, the DOE has only forgiven around a hundred. Former students had to sue in order to get this program moving correctly. The technicalities involved in this are a minefield for the common citizen.

 

[hotcypress]

Why do you want people who worked hard and planned appropriately to pay twice ?

I think the concept is much broader than just considering it selfishly. You should want conditions to improve for future generations; that's part of the reason why we are here. To me, this is similar to saying: "don't spend my tax dollars to research new cures for cancer. They didn't have that cure when i was sick, so screw them if they expect me to pay for an improved treatment."

If you're under 35, I'm willing to listen to your grievance. If you went to school 30 years ago, when it was dirt cheap in comparison to wages, just try to make the world a better place. This is how you help to lessen the damage due to massive cost increase and stagnant wages. In theory, it also frees up a lot of capital for people in the prime of their lives, where they make the most impactful economic decisions of their lives (buying a house, getting married, having children). I'm not sure that's the practical effect of this law, but I believe there's enough there to make this at least a legitimate thing to discuss.

At a minimum, government student loans should be interest free.

 

[Devo182]

Saw report that number 1 reason for getting married later now is due to high student loan debt. Fraud system

Only a concern if you get into the other fraud systems - inflated, expensive weddings and the De Beers diamond ring scam. It costs nothing but the price of a marriage certificate to make your pledge of undying love for another legal.

 

[hotcypress]

My wife looked into doing it as an NP. It's definitely a minefield. You have to work at the same place for 10 years. Can never miss or be late on a loan payment. So because you get everything paid off at 10 years, people are naturally encouraged to pay the minimum. But as you said, there are many, many technicalities, and some people get denied for arbitrary reasons. So they end up with huge interest accumulated because they were paying the minimum the entire time thinking it would get paid off.

the amount you got forgiven also shows up as income that 10th year that you have to pay tax on as well.

 

[Devo182]

Paid mine off, they go and forgive these kids' loan now I'm gonna be super pissed.

Lol I try not to, but I have those thoughts too. Paid off my last 10k at once and a few months after I see news about them wiping out student loan debt...almost pissed myself. But try hard not to let that cloud my opinion though.

 

[RikidyBones]

I think the concept is much broader than just considering it selfishly. You should want conditions to improve for future generations; that's part of the reason why we are here. To me, this is similar to saying: "don't spend my tax dollars to research new cures for cancer. They didn't have that cure when i was sick, so screw them if they expect me to pay for an improved treatment."

If you're under 35, I'm willing to listen to your grievance. If you went to school 30 years ago, when it was dirt cheap in comparison to wages, just try to make the world a better place. This is how you help to lessen the damage due to massive cost increase and stagnant wages. In theory, it also frees up a lot of capital for people in the prime of their lives, where they make the most impactful economic decisions of their lives (buying a house, getting married, having children). I'm not sure that's the practical effect of this law, but I believe there's enough there to make this at least a legitimate thing to discuss.

At a minimum, government student loans should be interest free.

I'm 32.

To your first point, people dont choose to have cancer while having other sicknesses to pick from. That's an illegitimate analogy. People DO choose to overspend, carelessly borrow and not consider ANY consequences to their actions. Want to better future generations? Get rid of guaranteed student loans. It'll fix itself.

You dont make the world a better place by erasing the consequences of people making bad choices. In fact, you encourage the bad behavior/choices.

 

[Devo182]

dude I'm 25 not 50, I got the TN Hope scholarship, went to ETSU, luckily my mom's a teacher so I got a little discount and I commuted. Cost me about $2,500 a semester, so quit making these excuses, they made the decisions that put them in this situation, college isn't as unaffordable as you would lead people to believe

So you use anecdotal evidence, from what is the most optimal of situations (cheap school, teacher discount, commuter) and use that as basis for making a widespread generalization? There are certainly ways to make it cheaper for some individuals, but that doesn't change the overall figures.

 

[2xVol]

dude I'm 25 not 50, I got the TN Hope scholarship, went to ETSU, luckily my mom's a teacher so I got a little discount and I commuted. Cost me about $2,500 a semester, so quit making these excuses, they made the decisions that put them in this situation, college isn't as unaffordable as you would lead people to believe

Hey news flash if the average college graduate has $35,000 in debt that they had to borrow to graduate then college is by definition unaffordable. And if every one commuted to a small, inexpensive in-state school like you did, guess what? Tuition at small in-state schools would go up! The argument makes no sense whatsoever. It's supply and demand. It doesn't matter how you slice it, someone has to pay the bill for the college graduates that now make up the backbone of the modern economy. And to the personal responsibility crowd, there are already many checks on personal responsibility for college students. You have to graduate within a certain time period to keep scholarships, you have to maintain a certain GPA, you have to pay for your living expenses, if your gpa isn't high enough your degree will be worthless anyways.... I could go on and on and on. Going to college is never an irresponsible decision; failing to get what you need from your college degree is. And that has nothing to do with how much debt you take on in the process. Guess what other countries do. They make university competitive and challenging in both application and education, and the people who can't hack it go to trade schools or other areas. It's not really any different than the system we have, only they don't leave the graduates with crippling debt for deciding to get a degree in an economy that demands college graduates.

 

[Devo182]

The annual increase in tuition is the problem. I know states are clamping down on their budgets, and that can effect public schools. But, the tuition increases are out of control. I know we have some educators on here, and it's not a knock on you guys. But, I would love to see what schools are spending money on.

Totally agree. I wish I had a better understanding, but I don't get why prices are going up when knowledge is more easily attainable than ever. Is it the race for "research universities"? Nicer and nicer student housing? Technology and infrastructure?

Public universities should be incentivized to lower costs in reasonable ways. Maybe offer more remote courses, offer cheap student housing, decrease campus size and sell off underutilized buildings, etc.

 

[HoleInTheRoof]

School is for suckers. I got a job right out of high school at McDonalds and it’s been a long 24 year career but I finally made assistant customer service representative which ads another .25 to my hourly wage. Plus a robust 35% employee discount on food. And once the government raises minimum wage to $15 I’ll be living like a king.

Not trying to brag here or act like I’m better than anyone. I’m just saying maybe I’ve made better life choices.